1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing electronic components, such as LED displays and hybrid IC's, each of which comprises an electronic element or elements, such as light emitting diodes, transistors, and IC's, mounted on a printed circuit board. The invention also relates to a board supply frame and a cutting device both for use in performing such a method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, electronic components such as LED displays and hybrid IC's utilize a circuit board which is previously formed with a sophisticated conductor pattern. In manufacturing LED displays for example, LED's are bonded on chip mounting pads of each printed circuit board, and suitably wired to terminal pads, a display cover being mounted on the circuit board after suitably coating the LED's and the wires with a resin material. The hybrid IC's are manufactured by mounting individual electronic elements, such as IC's, resistors, and/or transistors, on each printed circuit board.
In a conventional production line for LED displays or hybrid IC's, individual circuit boards are successively but separately transferred, and during such transfer, various process steps such as chip mounting are conducted with respect to each circuit board. However, since there are various types of LED displays and hybrid IC's which naturally require differently dimensioned or configured circuit boards with different conductor patterns, the conventional production line has the following problems.
(1) The transfer system of the conventional production line needs to have a complicated adjusting mechanism in order to handle variously sized or configured circuit boards. PA1 (2) It is difficult, if not impossible, to fully automate successive process steps and to automatically cope with a change in the type of printed circuit boards to be processed. PA1 (3) It is necessary to prepare different jigs and board receiving magazines for differently sized or configured circuit board, with resultant necessity for replacement of these parts upon a change in the type of circuit boards to be processed.